Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 6.djvu/113

Rh this manner. The skull itself is made out of the caul of an ox; and when fashioned into the requisite figure, by means of Etruscan wax and prepared gum, [and] when this membrane is placed around, it presents the appearance of a skull, which seems to all to speak when the contrivance operates; in the same manner as we have explained in the case of the [attendant] youths, when, having procured the windpipe of a crane, or some such long-necked animal, and attaching it covertly to the skull, the accomplice utters what he wishes. And when he desires [the skull] to become invisible, he appears as if burning incense, placing around, [for this purpose,] a quantity of coals; and when the wax catches the heat of these, it melts, and in this way the skull is supposed to become invisible.

These are the deeds of the magicians, and innumerable other such [tricks] there are which work on the credulity of the dupes, by fair balanced words, and the appearance of plausible acts. And the heresiarchs, astonished at the art of these [sorcerers], have imitated them, partly by delivering their doctrines in secrecy and darkness, and partly by advancing [these tenets] as their own. For this reason, being